Tag Archives | technology

A Future of Self-Surveillance? Tech Pioneers Track Bodily Functions Day and Night

Using smartphone apps and sensors, high tech pioneers are monitoring their own bodily functions such as heart rates, sleep patterns and blood. The ‘self trackers’ dream of a digitalized medicine that will enable people to lead healthier lives by getting around-the-clock updates on what goes on inside their bodies By Philip Bethge Larry Smarr’s large intestine appears to float […]

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Oil sands activist Melina Laboucan-Massimo: ‘What you do to the land you do to yourself’

Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Climate campaigner with Greenpeace Canada and member of the Cree First Nation, on oil sands operations in northern Alberta, threats to her homeland, and the planned Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Houston, Texas. Q: US-president Barack Obama has to decide before the end of the year if TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline can […]

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Oozing Biofuel: Algae Could Solve World’s Fuel Crisis

Genetically modified blue and green algae could be the answer to the world’s fuel problems. Bioengineers have already developed algae that produce ethanol, oil and even diesel — and the only things the organisms need are sunlight, CO2 and seawater. Biochemist Dan Robertson’s living gas stations have the dark-green shimmer of oak leaves and are […]

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Jonathan Schell: ‘Our Illusion Is that We Can Control Nuclear Energy’

In a SPIEGEL interview, peace activist and author Jonathan Schell discusses the lessons of the Fukushima disaster, mankind’s false impression that it can somehow safely produce electricity from the atom, and why he thinks the partial meltdown in Japan could mark a turning point for the world. SPIEGEL: Mr. Schell, what unsettled you the most […]

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